Facebook seeks accreditation for ad metrics

US – Facebook is seeking accreditation from the Media Rating Council (MRC), as part of its efforts to win back the trust of advertisers.

The company is currently undergoing the first of several planned reviews, with a view to getting the MRC’s stamp of approval for its first-party and third-party ad serving, and for video views.

In a blog post published yesterday, Facebook’s VP for global marketing solutions Carolyn Everson said: “Over the next 18 months, we’re working to achieve MRC accreditation across display and video on Instagram, Facebook and Audience Network for impression counting, viewability measurement and two-second video buying.” Facebook is also working with industry partners in other countries, including Germany’s TV ratings body AGF, Everson said.

The social media giant has come under growing pressure to strengthen its audience measurement, particularly for video.

The situation was not helped when it had to admit last year that errors in some of its video ad metrics had caused viewing figures to be inflated. More recently, discrepancies have been pointed out between Facebook’s claimed reach among particular age groups, and US census data.

The company is also introducing new standards for the type of content that can be monetised on Facebook, and post-campaign reporting for advertisers.

Everson said: “We want all our partners to have the information and tools they need to feel confident advertising on Facebook. We've made significant progress this past year on some of the major issues, but we're not done. We still have further to go.”